Smart-Metering (AMI) Designs in Public Utilities
Energy, material resources, and increased cost efficiencies are key factors driving new smart-grid (AMI) product design solutions.
Our client needed to create an entire product line to address smart-metering opportunities in the public utilities market. Performance, extensibility, flexibility, durability, and cost-effectiveness of the overall design and end-products were key requirements.
The planning stage started with collaborative product road-mapping to define the existing and expected future needs of the product line based on existing products. Specific product plans with key feature listings by product were produced and a flexible development platform was designed to meet future requirements.
Outcomes from the design process included a core product platform that enabled the rapid creation of seven new products that could be spun-out quickly. The core platform provided cost savings in engineering dollars and schedule. This made fast product releases for engineering and also met time-to-market business requirements.
Services Provided
- Product Road-Mapping
- Requirements review
- System Design
- Custom RF Front End Design
- FPGA Design and Development
- FPGA Test Bench Creation
- Detailed Schematic Design
- Firmware and Software Development
- PCB Development (Main PCB and Custom RF Mezzanine Card)
- PCB Prototyping and Bring-Up
- System Level Testing
- Validation and Verification at the Board and System Level
- Transition to Production Manufacturing
- Manufacturing Test Design and Development (at Contract Manufacturer)
Technologies
- Software Defined Radio implementation
- Custom RF design and Testing
- Custom analog and digital hardware development
- Xilinx FPGA Development
- Signal Processing, Waveform Development
- PCB Layout
- Engineering and Manufacturing Test